Tag: software

Oh how things change

I haven’t posted on this blog in nearly 3 years. I have migrated it from running on my Mac Mini at my home, onto a real VPS in a datacenter, but I just haven’t posted on it.

So what is the point of this blog now? Truth be told, I don’t know. I just don’t have a strong desire to blog anymore.

I spend my time mostly playing Dota 2 and other multiplayer games these days. I hang out in IRC channels, even one on my own small network made of my server at home, and the VPS that runs this blog. Sometimes I make a small cool application, but I’m just not that creative, nor am I confident in what I make.

I suppose one thing I can share is my Stargate Episode Randomizer, which suggests a random Stargate episode to watch. It is very simple and programmed using the very light Camping web framework for Ruby.

I know this post isn’t much, but maybe you’ll be inspired to develop some application of your own.

VMware ESXi

I recently installed VMware ESXi on my abandoned server, as it would not start any GNU/Linux distribution for some strange reason (during udev startup.)

ESXi installed quick and set up easily. Set the password and configure the IP and I could let it be, physical access wise.

From there, I simply installed the management software, VMware vSphere Client. Then, I deployed a Virtual Appliance for fun. After downloading, right from the management software, the appliance was ready for me to play with within minutes.

From there, I sent an ISO to the server and installed a Debian 5 virtual machine. I also used the physical server’s DVD drive to install OpenSUSE 11.

You can also take VMware Workstation virtual machines to your server effortlessly.

Right now, I’m setting up the Mobile Access appliance, but the server is on a 10mbit switch and a weak wireless connection, so it takes time to send the disk.

Overall, I give a recommendation for ESXi if you have a brand new server and want to virtualize. It’s free from VMware’s website: vmware.com

47.394108-121.992928

An MVpybot update

Just wanted to let everyone know that MVpybot recently had a nice update. For those of you that don’t know (probably most of you), MVpybot is an IRC bot written in Python. It’s main page is here, and the post about the latest update is here. Download  it here (click ‘Download GNU tarball’ to download) and hop on theoks.net/#bots to see it in action.

Screenshot included:

Fedora 12 Constantine

Yes, Fedora 12, Constantine has been released.  This release is focused on reinforcing stability, as well as making the desktop easier for new users. I’m hosting a release party on IRC, #Main on theoks.net.

You can read the new features in Fedora 12 on this wiki page: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/12/FeatureList

Packaging ScriptBot for Fedora, a continuing adventure

You mostly likely know that I’m  a proud contributor to the Fedora Project. I helped out a bit on blogs.fedoraproject.org and I generally also keep the wiki clean. However, I haven’t ever made a package.

So my first packaging adventure is packaging the IRC bot library that ScriptBot uses.

One word: pain.

There’s a few nuances with PircBot. It comes as a jar with source inside it as well as the compiled classes. I extracted the source, made it usable for RPM to build. I scrapped the binaries, and put it into a traditional tarball. So apparently that doesn’t work.

Next, I found RPM wasn’t making a buildroot correctly. So I had to make a hack around that.

Then, it came to the install path. There’s a page on the Fedora Project Wiki apparently. But I didn’t know that! It’s not linked from the frequently visited Packaging pages.

After getting it to build, it went through a scratch build on Koji, then I filed for review on Bugzilla.

That’s when I found the page for Fedora’s Java packaging guidelines. I apparently did need documentation (although all I can put is a link, the documentation isn’t really pullable from the website). So I ended marking the bug for my request as CLOSED DEFERRED.

Expect a part two post when I actually get Pircbot into the repos.  Also likely is a part three when ScriptBot itself gets in.

See the ScriptBot project page at scriptbot.theoks.net.